1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to storage devices in general, and more particularly to a storage rack for storing a multitude of items, especially compact disks, individually in respective storage receptacles movably mounted on a stand component of the rack.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of storage racks, among them such that are specifically designed for storing a multitude of phonograph records, or a multitude of audio or video cassettes, or even a multitude of so-called compact disks, whether they be of the music variety, of the laser disk kind, or of the so-called CD-ROM sort. In the category of compact disks, the typical approach used in the past was to propose a shelf-type structure of one configuration or another that contains a substantial number of compartments or bays each for accommodating usually just one so-called "jewel case", i.e. a box, usually of a transparent material, especially hard plastic, that is capable of accommodating and supporting a respective compact disk in a manner protecting the latter from damage even as the jewel case is being moved, sometimes in a not-too-gentle fashion, from one place to another. The reasoning behind this approach was that, since the use of such hard boxes is at least advantageous, if not indispensible, while the compact disks are still in the chain of commerce including the respective retail establishment at which the compact disks are on display in a manner that permits the prospective purchasers to handle the compact disks which are then still protected from damage by being contained in the respective jewel cases, the protective function of such jewel cases may as well be utilized even later, when the compact disk is already in the possession of its owner.
However, the jewel cases add additional expense to the production of the so protected compact disks and, therefore, the tendency is to package the disks, especially the CD-ROM disks that are ordinarily contained in cardboard boxes, together with instruction manuals or the like, in a less expensive manner. This, of course, means that the reliable damage protection provided to the disks by the jewel boxes is not extended to the owners any longer; yet, it would still be desirable to many owners to be able to store such disks in a similarly rugged fashion.
Of course, it would be possible for such owners to go out and buy empty jewel boxes by the dozen or any other number by which they are being offered. However, with the proliferation of CD-ROM borne programs, the availability of convenient storage space is becoming more and more of a problem. This situation has already been recognized before by others and some of them have proposed solutions to this problem. Among them, there were Jung-Ching Peng and Boris Angele who, in their respective U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,344,028 and 5,370,244, have proposed storage arrangements in which the compact disks are individually contained in respective storage receptacles which, in turn, are mounted on a storage stand and particularly on a shaft or rod that extends vertically upwardly from the base of the stand, for turning about the longitudinal axis of the rod. This provided for a certain amount of access to the respective receptacles and certainly to their contents. However, experience has shown that it is not an easy task in storage racks of this type especially to remove the respective compact disk from its receptacle, in that the proper gripping of the compact disk prior to its removal is impeded by the presence of various parts of the receptacles in the path of the gripping movement.